chester Cathedral. In 1394 Wykeham determined to proceed with this work. Leaving the walls and pillars of the old nave standing, he converted them into the Perpendicular style. This work was not however completed till after his death, which took place on the 27th of September, 1404, he having lived to assist at the marriage of Henry IV. And so this great man passed away leaving to the Church of England, as his benefactions, New College and Winchester School. And what better conclusion can we give to this brief and imperfect sketch of Wykeham and his work, than the glowing words of one of his own scholars, a distinguished poet of our own day.1 "Nations and thrones and reverend laws have melted like a dream, J. REGINALD DOWSON. LILIAS GILLESPIE THE QUAKERESS. BY A PROFESSOR OF HISTORY. THE doctrines of the Society of Friends, usually known as Quakerism, seem to have made their first appearance in Scotland about the year 1653. About that time there had arisen, amongst the people, a strong spirit of dissatisfaction with the political bias so prevalent among the ministers of the Scottish establishment, and the extent to which they allowed politics to mingle with, and even overrule, their religious duties. Longing for a more purely spiritual worship than the established Churches then afforded, small companies of people-some of them high in worldly position-began to meet together among themselves, for prayer and preaching, in a manner closely resembling that of the Friends or Quakers of England, although at first entirely unknown to and unconnected with that body. Soon, however, the 1 Sir Roundell Palmer, M.P., now Lord Chancellor. preachers of the Society of Friends began to extend their wanderings north of the Tweed, and to fraternise with the scattered bodies of more spiritual worshippers already existing in Scotland, who were thus led into closer connection with the English Quakers. One of these English preachers, by name John Burnyeat, of Cumberland, has left us, in his still extant journal, an account of the motives which led him, on his liberation from the prison of Carlisle-to which he had been committed for his religious opinions-to turn his attention to Scotland. In August, 1658, therefore, he proceeded to Edinburgh, and thence to other towns, extending his wanderings as far north as Aberdeen. Wherever he went he attended the Quaker meetings, if any already existed, and, if they did not, he preached to the people at the markets, and other places of resort, and even in the churches, where that could be done. It is curious to find that, even at this early period, the Friends seem to have been averse to use the term Churches, as designating buildings for religious service, for Burnyeat, in his journal, invariably calls them steeplehouses. The preaching of Burnyeat seems to have been generally successful. In Aberdeen in particular, it took such hold of the convictions of many religiously inclined persons, both men and women, that convincements, as the Friends then denominated conversion to their principles, followed rapidly, and meetings for worship, in that peculiar form, were regularly held. The movement thus originated soon attracted general attention, and was naturally viewed with the greatest aversion by the ministers of the Scottish establishment at Aberdeen, from whose flocks many of the new converts to Quakerism had of course been drawn. Instead, however, of attempting to maintain their own position by fair argument, they endeavoured to stem the movement by aspersing their rivals with the most extraordinary and groundless calumnies, which are thus summed up by Robert Barclay, the well-known Apologist of Quakerism, in an earlier work entitled "Truth cleared of Calumnies." He says that the ministers, in their sermons, denounced his co-religionists as "demented, distracted, bodily possessed of the devil, practising abominations, under colour of being led to them by the Spirit," and as to their principles, "as blasphemous deniers of the true CHRIST, of heaven, hell, angels, the resurrection of the body, and day of judgment; inconsistency of magistracy, nothing better than John of Leyden and his accomplices." How groundless these accusations were, it is not now necessary to show. The doctrines of Quakerism are too well known to require any such proof, but the calumnies of the ministers prevailed at the time, and were generally believed. The natural effect soon followed, and the Friends were mobbed, and insulted, and even stoned and beaten, in the streets of Aberdeen, which proceedings the magistrates, incited by the ministers, rather countenanced than attempted to check. A regular persecution was soon commenced, and the leading Friends were imprisoned and fined, in the hope of deterring others from joining them. In this case, however, as in all similar ones, the opposite effect seemed to be produced, for the sect grew and prospered, under persecution, more even than it had before. Such was the state of things at Aberdeen in the year 1669, about which time occurred the convincement of a lady, who subsequently occupied a rather conspicuous position among the Friends, and displayed a strength of character, and devoted courage in the face of danger, which gives an interest to her life which it would not otherwise have possessed. Lilias Gillespie was at this time about forty-three years of age, and was the wife of Alexander Skene, of Newtyle, one of the magistrates of Aberdeen, for which reason she is generally mentioned in the writings of the Friends at Aberdeen by her married name as Lilias Skene. She had been distinguished from her youth for her pious spirit, and was much esteemed by the ministers of the city for her religious attainments. As her husband was a magistrate, it is not wonderful that she was at first led away by the slanderous statements against the Quakers, which their adversaries were so assiduous in circulating. Her own inquiries seem to have soon convinced her that these calumnies were, to a considerable extent at least, groundless; but she was unable entirely to extricate herself from their influence, and still continued to doubt whether the Quakers were not justly chargeable with what had been alleged against them, to this extent at least, that they denied the Scriptures, and "did not pray in the name of JESUS." But a circumstance soon occurred which removed even these last remaining doubts. She happened to be taken ill, at a time when she was occupying an apartment in a house in which also dwelt a woman by name Barbara Forbes, who had some time before joined the Society of Friends. Whether the house belonged to Barbara Forbes, so that Lilias Skene was actually her guest, does not appear, but her position in it was, at all events, such that the Friends were accustomed occasionally to meet there for worship. The room in which these meetings were held adjoined so closely to that in which Lilias lay, that she could hear all that passed. On one occasion, as she lay listening attentively to the worship of the Quakers, she heard two Englishwomen praying and preaching to them, and observed that their preaching was full of Scriptural expressions, and their prayers invariably offered in the name of CHRIST. This conclusive evidence effectually convinced her of the falsehood of the slanderous accusations, with which the minister by whom she had formerly been led, used to asperse the Friends; and as her strength and decision of character led her at once to act upon her convictions, she proceeded, without delay, to acknowledge her convincement, and to become openly a member of the Society. The convincement of Lilias Skene was followed, in a short time, by that of her husband, Alexander Skene, who had been even a more zealous opponent of the Friends than his wife, and, in his magisterial capacity, had taken part in the severe measures adopted against them. He has himself left an account of the circumstances of his convincement, imputing it to an incident to which he seems to have ascribed a miraculous character. He says that conversing with a friend in his own house-a nonconformist minister-he allowed himself to be so excited against the Quakers, as to say that one of their leaders was a villain, whom it would be well to hang at the cross of Aberdeen. Within a few hours after using this expression, he was seized with a local affection of the muscles of his face, which was then known, in Scotland, by the title of "snarling spasm," from its drawing the mouth to one side, and producing an expression like that of a snarling dog. In this condition he remained for some weeks, until becoming convinced that this affliction which had befallen him was a judgment from Heaven, for his inveterate hostility towards the Quakers, and incited farther, probably, by the arguments of his wife, he too joined the Society of Friends. In this step he was shortly after followed by Thomas Mercer, who had been Dean of Guild of the City. The fact of two men, so important in position in Aberdeen, having joined the hated sect of the Quakers, naturally increased the virulent opposition of the established ministers. Alexander Skene, anxious to do what he could to inspire the authorities with juster views of the position and principles of his co-religionists, addressed to the ministers a written explanation of his reasons for joining them, composed in the form of questions addressed to them, but without effect. The preachers continued, by all means in their power, to incite the civil authorities to proceed with severity against the Quakers, and, in 1671, on the occasion of the judges of the High Court visiting Aberdeen on circuit, the ministers endeavoured to induce them to interfere, accusing the magistrates of remissness, in failing utterly to put down so pernicious a sect. Their zeal, however, overreached itself, for their malice was so visible to the judges, that they refused to listen to them. They then induced the magistrates to pass an Act of Council, that no Quaker should be a burgess or freeman of the city; that whoever received a Quaker into his house, without the permission of a magistrate, should be fined; and that whoever let a house for Quakers to meet in, or even to dwell in, should be heavily fined. But the execution of this act was stopped by the Declaration of Indulgence to all Nonconformists proclaimed by King Charles II. in 1672. An attempt was also made to take advantage of a common practice in the Scotch courts of law, and to use it for the persecution of the Quakers. It was, and still is, the custom that, where a party sues for a debt, and has no proof to offer, he may have his opponent put upon oath, and made to swear as to whether the debt is due or not. It was against the principles of the Friends to take any oath whatever, and it was easy for designing persons to trump up groundless claims against members of the Society, and then, referring the debt to the defender's oath, to procure decrees against them on their refusal to swear. This unworthy course was, however, soon put a stop to, by the Court agreeing to accept of the solemn declaration of a Quaker as equivalent to the oath of any other man. The relief which the Quakers thus obtained under the Declaration of Indulgence of 1672 was, however, of short duration, for in 1674, the Privy Council issued a Proclamation against house or field conventicles, with a Bond attached, to be subscribed by heads of families and others, binding them not to hold such meetings in future. Taking advantage of this, the magistrates of Aberdeen came several times to the meetings of Friends, and called upon them to sign the bond. On their refusal they dispersed the meeting by force, but the Friends quietly returned, and resumed their worship, as soon as the magistrates had withdrawn. In 1676 the Scottish Council issued another proclamation, reinforcing the previous ones, and calling on the sheriffs and magistrates to put them in force against all who had been outlawed by the Council. The magistrates of Aberdeen, however, saw |